"Your boasting is not good! Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" (I Corinthians 5:6)
In last week's lesson on I Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul wrote about what a true servant of God is, how he lives, what he endures, and how he should be viewed! Beginning with this: "Let a man regard us (speaking of himself, Apollos, and other apostles and teachers) as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"! The word he used in the Greek for "servant," we learned, means "under-rower," and pictures a "galley slave" given the most menial task of responding to the ship's captain in rowing at the bottom, third-tier level of a large, big-bellied ship of that day. Paul used another Greek word for servant in II Corinthians 6:4 which pictured a "table waiter"! And so, Paul pictured himself and other apostles and Christian leaders as humble servants of God--galley slaves and table waiters! Jesus used the same second servant word, we noted, to describe His disciples in Luke's gospel! And in the same II Corinthians 6 passage (noted above), the apostle Paul would later describe the kinds of things that went along with being such a servant (at least in his experience): "In much endurance (he writes), in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labor, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth; in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as a deceiver and yet true; as unknown yet well known; as dying and yet we live; as punished and yet not to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things"! Whew!
But not only a "servant of Christ"! Also, a "steward of the mysteries of God"! A steward, referring to a special kind of servant who is entrusted with the administration of his master's property, or estate; charged with looking after his best interests, and being accountable to him for the results! And with "the mysteries of God," referring to divinely-inspired revelations given to him by God! Paul wrote about this earlier, you'll remember, in I Corinthians 2:7-9, where it says: "But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him"! The apostle Peter wrote, in I Peter 4:10: "As each of you (and that would apply to each of us as "men of the Bible"!) has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God"!
MacArthur notes that the most important virtue of a servant of the Lord is summed up in a word: Humility! And we see that quality consistently demonstrated in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul! Acts 20:19, for example, records him traveling through Asia, "serving the Lord with humility and with tears and with trials which came to him through the plots of the Jews"! And, in I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, he writes that "God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become spectators to the world (picturing them, perhaps, as gladiators competing in the Roman colosseum)...and fools for Christ's sake..."! And he goes on in the verses to follow to describe how, in contrast with the Corinthians, they (the apostles) were dishonored and weak while the Corinthians saw themselves as (somehow!) "prudent in Christ...and strong...and distinguished"! The apostles who "when reviled, blessed; when persecuted, endured; when slandered, tried to conciliate, becoming as the scum of the world, and the dregs of all things"!
All the above reflecting the kind of treatment Paul, and the other apostles, were willing to endure in order to proclaim the gospel of Christ! The Bible Hub portrays the paradoxical nature of their lives as "lowly in the eyes of the world but rich in spiritual blessings"! And this, Paul suggested, apparently reflected the "lowly way" the arrogant Corinthians viewed Paul and the apostles ss well!
And so we saw Paul here, in exercising his apostolic authority, and with a bit of sarcasm thrown in, trying to get the Corinthian "brothers" to see for themselves the pride and arrogance and other sinful ways of their lives! Making it clear (in verse 14) that he "did not write these things to sham them but to admonish them as his beloved children...and to urge them instead to be "imitators of him," as he was of Christ! And he said that it was for this reason that he was sending Timothy ("his beloved and faithful child in the Lord") who would "remind them of my ways which are in Christ"!
Paul closes I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, by expressing his hope than when he returns to Corinth he would find them following his teachings, so that he would be able to come to them with "love and a spirit of gentleness," rather than "with a rod"!
And so that sets the scene for I Corinthians 5--where it soon appears that the "rod" might be necessary after all!
Verse 1 begins, unfortunately, with Paul having had reported to him (with good authority, apparently!) that "there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles!" (Uh O! Get out the rod, Paul!) A man's sexual union with the woman who had married the immoral man's father! Thus, his stepmother! And, Paul notes how the Corinthian "brothers" had actually "become arrogant" about it (there's that word again!), even boasting of their "openness," and permissiveness in accepting it, when they should have mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from their midst"! (MacArthur notes that it wasn't so much the existence of this sin in itself that shocked and upset Paul, but that it was actually tolerated within, and by, the church of Corinth!
So why was this so repugnant to God (and to the apostle Paul, and even to unbelievers)?
It was happening inside the proverbial "body of Christ"! The church of God! And it was vile!
I Corinthians 6:17-19 says, "Flee fornication! Every other sin a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body! Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body!" And note back in verse 13, where it's written that, "the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body"! (MacArthur notes that "bodies of believers and the Lord have an eternal relationship that will never perish, and that the body will be changed, raised, glorified, and (one day!) made heavenly"!)
Constable writes that "the church's refusal to act against the offender provides the most striking example of the Corinthians "arrogance" (there it is again!), the carnal attitude that would lead to this and other serious sin in the church of the Corinthians, as we'll see as we continue our study of I Corinthians!
So how did the apostle Paul respond to this report? Verse 3 says that "even though he was absent from them in body but present in spirit, he had already judged the one who committed this sin (again exercising his apostolic authority!) as if he were present among them and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of Jesus Christ"! (Indicating that this immoral man was, in fact, a believer!)
So how should the leadership of the church have dealt with this issue to begin with, rather than waiting for Paul to act?
Jesus set up the process in Matthew 18:15-17, where He said to His disciples: "If your brother sins (notice the reference to "brother," speaking of a fellow believer), go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother! But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed! If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he (still!) refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector!"
So, why is so important that "known sin in the church" be confronted and dealt with promptly? "Do you not know (there he goes again!) that a little leaven leavens the whole lump...?" Constable writes: "Sin spreads in the church like yeast (or leaven) does in dough, and eventually the whole congregation would suffer if the believers did not remove this sin from their midst!"
Leaven is often used in Scripture to denote sin because of its permeating (and fermenting!) power! Jesus said to His disciples, in Matthew 16:6, to "watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees..."--referring to their teaching and hypocrisy! And we get a better understanding of this analogy from the way the Jews were taught to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament. Exodus 12:14-15 says, "This day (speaking of the Passover) will be a memorial to you and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations...Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whosoever eats anything unleavened from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel!" Exodus 13:7-8 adds that "you shall tell your sons, saying, 'It's because of what God did for them when He delivered them from Egypt!" The final act of separation from Egypt, you'll remember, came on the Passover, when the death angel passed over Egypt and slaughtered the first-born of every Egyptian family, and every Jewish family too that didn't follow God's command to splatter the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their houses. And so, the children of Israel were delivered from their bondage in Egypt (with the Passover symbolizing separation from life in Egypt)! Just as Christ, our Passover Lamb, separates us, and delivers us, from the bondage of sin!
And so Paul writes, in I Corinthians 5:7-8, for the Corinthians (and this applies to us as well!) to "clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened (and a "new creation" in Christ). For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed therefore let us celebrate the feast (figuratively speaking!), not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"! (MacArthur notes how the church is, therefore, "to remove everything sinful (leaven!) in order to separate it from the old life, including the influence of a sinful church member"!)
Paul further notes in verse 9 how he had earlier written for the Corinthians "not to associate with immoral people"! But he clarifies that (in verse 10) by saying that "he didn't mean that we shouldn't associate with immoral people of this world--or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters of this world--but actually with a so-called 'brother' if he is an immoral person (or any of the above)! Wow! Constable notes that "it's not that a Christian should shun the world and avoid contact with unbelievers, since that kind of isolation would require that he stop living in the real world, and exist in some type of Christian ghetto, isolated from all contact with unbelievers"! We are, rather, called to be "the salt of the world," and "the light of the world," and to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 5:13-16, and 28:19-20)! And that requires contact, and relationships, with the people of the world (like Jesus exhibited during His earthly ministry)! And so, while we are to be in contact with the world, we are not to be "conformed" to it!
And so the church and believers are to cut off association with a "brother" who is participating in known sin and refusing to repent and change! And, as Constable writes, Paul prescribed this as a strong form of discipline in order to confront the offender with this behavior, specifically as a means to encourage him (or her) to repent and change! I like the way he adds that "church discipline is not a group of 'pious policemen' out to catch a criminal, but rather a group of brokenhearted brothers and sisters seeking to restore an erring member of the family out of love"! A lack of accountability with the church family actually demonstrates a lack of love and dishonors the lordship of Jesus Christ by honoring man over God"! And so church discipline is always for the restoration of the offender to fellowship with God, and His people!
I also like what Paul writes in II Corinthians 2:6-11, where he may be referring back to this same incident in our text! He writes, "But if any of you has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much---to all of you! Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him; otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (and verse11 says, "and given an advantage for Satan")! Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him"! This indicates that the church had, in fact, followed the process of discipline and punishment, as required by Scripture, and that it worked! And was enough! Now it was time to show mercy, because the man had repented, and it was time to restore the joy that comes with being right with the Lord, and back in fellowship with the brothers, in the church of God! Wow! It works! And what a great ending!
Constable writes that "great orthodoxy (or correct doctrine) must always be followed with great orthopraxy (or correct practice)"!
Thank you, Lord, for Your inspired Word!
Lowell
In last week's lesson on I Corinthians 4, the apostle Paul wrote about what a true servant of God is, how he lives, what he endures, and how he should be viewed! Beginning with this: "Let a man regard us (speaking of himself, Apollos, and other apostles and teachers) as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God"! The word he used in the Greek for "servant," we learned, means "under-rower," and pictures a "galley slave" given the most menial task of responding to the ship's captain in rowing at the bottom, third-tier level of a large, big-bellied ship of that day. Paul used another Greek word for servant in II Corinthians 6:4 which pictured a "table waiter"! And so, Paul pictured himself and other apostles and Christian leaders as humble servants of God--galley slaves and table waiters! Jesus used the same second servant word, we noted, to describe His disciples in Luke's gospel! And in the same II Corinthians 6 passage (noted above), the apostle Paul would later describe the kinds of things that went along with being such a servant (at least in his experience): "In much endurance (he writes), in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labor, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth; in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as a deceiver and yet true; as unknown yet well known; as dying and yet we live; as punished and yet not to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things"! Whew!
But not only a "servant of Christ"! Also, a "steward of the mysteries of God"! A steward, referring to a special kind of servant who is entrusted with the administration of his master's property, or estate; charged with looking after his best interests, and being accountable to him for the results! And with "the mysteries of God," referring to divinely-inspired revelations given to him by God! Paul wrote about this earlier, you'll remember, in I Corinthians 2:7-9, where it says: "But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him"! The apostle Peter wrote, in I Peter 4:10: "As each of you (and that would apply to each of us as "men of the Bible"!) has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as a good steward of the manifold grace of God"!
MacArthur notes that the most important virtue of a servant of the Lord is summed up in a word: Humility! And we see that quality consistently demonstrated in the life and ministry of the apostle Paul! Acts 20:19, for example, records him traveling through Asia, "serving the Lord with humility and with tears and with trials which came to him through the plots of the Jews"! And, in I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, he writes that "God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death, because we have become spectators to the world (picturing them, perhaps, as gladiators competing in the Roman colosseum)...and fools for Christ's sake..."! And he goes on in the verses to follow to describe how, in contrast with the Corinthians, they (the apostles) were dishonored and weak while the Corinthians saw themselves as (somehow!) "prudent in Christ...and strong...and distinguished"! The apostles who "when reviled, blessed; when persecuted, endured; when slandered, tried to conciliate, becoming as the scum of the world, and the dregs of all things"!
All the above reflecting the kind of treatment Paul, and the other apostles, were willing to endure in order to proclaim the gospel of Christ! The Bible Hub portrays the paradoxical nature of their lives as "lowly in the eyes of the world but rich in spiritual blessings"! And this, Paul suggested, apparently reflected the "lowly way" the arrogant Corinthians viewed Paul and the apostles ss well!
And so we saw Paul here, in exercising his apostolic authority, and with a bit of sarcasm thrown in, trying to get the Corinthian "brothers" to see for themselves the pride and arrogance and other sinful ways of their lives! Making it clear (in verse 14) that he "did not write these things to sham them but to admonish them as his beloved children...and to urge them instead to be "imitators of him," as he was of Christ! And he said that it was for this reason that he was sending Timothy ("his beloved and faithful child in the Lord") who would "remind them of my ways which are in Christ"!
Paul closes I Corinthians 4, you'll remember, by expressing his hope than when he returns to Corinth he would find them following his teachings, so that he would be able to come to them with "love and a spirit of gentleness," rather than "with a rod"!
And so that sets the scene for I Corinthians 5--where it soon appears that the "rod" might be necessary after all!
Verse 1 begins, unfortunately, with Paul having had reported to him (with good authority, apparently!) that "there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles!" (Uh O! Get out the rod, Paul!) A man's sexual union with the woman who had married the immoral man's father! Thus, his stepmother! And, Paul notes how the Corinthian "brothers" had actually "become arrogant" about it (there's that word again!), even boasting of their "openness," and permissiveness in accepting it, when they should have mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from their midst"! (MacArthur notes that it wasn't so much the existence of this sin in itself that shocked and upset Paul, but that it was actually tolerated within, and by, the church of Corinth!
So why was this so repugnant to God (and to the apostle Paul, and even to unbelievers)?
It was happening inside the proverbial "body of Christ"! The church of God! And it was vile!
I Corinthians 6:17-19 says, "Flee fornication! Every other sin a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body! Or do you not know (there he goes again!) that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your body!" And note back in verse 13, where it's written that, "the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body"! (MacArthur notes that "bodies of believers and the Lord have an eternal relationship that will never perish, and that the body will be changed, raised, glorified, and (one day!) made heavenly"!)
Constable writes that "the church's refusal to act against the offender provides the most striking example of the Corinthians "arrogance" (there it is again!), the carnal attitude that would lead to this and other serious sin in the church of the Corinthians, as we'll see as we continue our study of I Corinthians!
So how did the apostle Paul respond to this report? Verse 3 says that "even though he was absent from them in body but present in spirit, he had already judged the one who committed this sin (again exercising his apostolic authority!) as if he were present among them and, in the power of the Holy Spirit, had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of Jesus Christ"! (Indicating that this immoral man was, in fact, a believer!)
So how should the leadership of the church have dealt with this issue to begin with, rather than waiting for Paul to act?
Jesus set up the process in Matthew 18:15-17, where He said to His disciples: "If your brother sins (notice the reference to "brother," speaking of a fellow believer), go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother! But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed! If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he (still!) refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector!"
So, why is so important that "known sin in the church" be confronted and dealt with promptly? "Do you not know (there he goes again!) that a little leaven leavens the whole lump...?" Constable writes: "Sin spreads in the church like yeast (or leaven) does in dough, and eventually the whole congregation would suffer if the believers did not remove this sin from their midst!"
Leaven is often used in Scripture to denote sin because of its permeating (and fermenting!) power! Jesus said to His disciples, in Matthew 16:6, to "watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees..."--referring to their teaching and hypocrisy! And we get a better understanding of this analogy from the way the Jews were taught to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the Old Testament. Exodus 12:14-15 says, "This day (speaking of the Passover) will be a memorial to you and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations...Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whosoever eats anything unleavened from the first day until the seventh day shall be cut off from Israel!" Exodus 13:7-8 adds that "you shall tell your sons, saying, 'It's because of what God did for them when He delivered them from Egypt!" The final act of separation from Egypt, you'll remember, came on the Passover, when the death angel passed over Egypt and slaughtered the first-born of every Egyptian family, and every Jewish family too that didn't follow God's command to splatter the blood of a sacrificial lamb on the doorposts and lintels of their houses. And so, the children of Israel were delivered from their bondage in Egypt (with the Passover symbolizing separation from life in Egypt)! Just as Christ, our Passover Lamb, separates us, and delivers us, from the bondage of sin!
And so Paul writes, in I Corinthians 5:7-8, for the Corinthians (and this applies to us as well!) to "clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened (and a "new creation" in Christ). For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed therefore let us celebrate the feast (figuratively speaking!), not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"! (MacArthur notes how the church is, therefore, "to remove everything sinful (leaven!) in order to separate it from the old life, including the influence of a sinful church member"!)
Paul further notes in verse 9 how he had earlier written for the Corinthians "not to associate with immoral people"! But he clarifies that (in verse 10) by saying that "he didn't mean that we shouldn't associate with immoral people of this world--or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters of this world--but actually with a so-called 'brother' if he is an immoral person (or any of the above)! Wow! Constable notes that "it's not that a Christian should shun the world and avoid contact with unbelievers, since that kind of isolation would require that he stop living in the real world, and exist in some type of Christian ghetto, isolated from all contact with unbelievers"! We are, rather, called to be "the salt of the world," and "the light of the world," and to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 5:13-16, and 28:19-20)! And that requires contact, and relationships, with the people of the world (like Jesus exhibited during His earthly ministry)! And so, while we are to be in contact with the world, we are not to be "conformed" to it!
And so the church and believers are to cut off association with a "brother" who is participating in known sin and refusing to repent and change! And, as Constable writes, Paul prescribed this as a strong form of discipline in order to confront the offender with this behavior, specifically as a means to encourage him (or her) to repent and change! I like the way he adds that "church discipline is not a group of 'pious policemen' out to catch a criminal, but rather a group of brokenhearted brothers and sisters seeking to restore an erring member of the family out of love"! A lack of accountability with the church family actually demonstrates a lack of love and dishonors the lordship of Jesus Christ by honoring man over God"! And so church discipline is always for the restoration of the offender to fellowship with God, and His people!
I also like what Paul writes in II Corinthians 2:6-11, where he may be referring back to this same incident in our text! He writes, "But if any of you has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much---to all of you! Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him; otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (and verse11 says, "and given an advantage for Satan")! Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him"! This indicates that the church had, in fact, followed the process of discipline and punishment, as required by Scripture, and that it worked! And was enough! Now it was time to show mercy, because the man had repented, and it was time to restore the joy that comes with being right with the Lord, and back in fellowship with the brothers, in the church of God! Wow! It works! And what a great ending!
Constable writes that "great orthodoxy (or correct doctrine) must always be followed with great orthopraxy (or correct practice)"!
Thank you, Lord, for Your inspired Word!
Lowell
RSS Feed